1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to chaff spreaders, and more particularly pertains to an improved chaff spreader for attachment to a combine. The chaff or residue produced by a conventional combine is concentrated in a relatively narrow trail deposited after each swath has been cut. This chaff residue creates a toxic effect which inhibits the growth of new seedlings during the subsequent growing season. In order to enable the practice of economical and environmentally safe no-till and minimum-till farming, the chaff residue must be spread evenly across the width of the cut, to eliminate this toxic effect. In order to overcome this problem, the present invention provides an improved chaff spreader for attachment to a combine which evenly distributes the chaff residue.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of collector attachments for agricultural vehicles are known in the prior art. A typical example of such a device is to be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,925,968, which issued to F. Wagenhals on Dec. 16, 1975. This patent discloses a rotary mulcher attachment for a conventional tractor type lawn mower. The mulcher includes a cylindrical housing in a which plurality of mulcher-impeller blades are mounted for rotation about a generally horizontal axis extending centrally through the housing. The mulcher includes baffle plates which extend into the discharge opening of the mower housing for guiding cut material to an inlet opening in the lower portion of the mulcher housing. A collection bag is disposed at an outlet of the mulcher housing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,324,091, which issued to E. Wistuba et al on Apr. 13, 1984, discloses a vehicular forage harvester which includes a trailer wagon pivotally connected thereto having a chute operating to deliver an agricultural crop cut by the forage harvester into the trailer wagon. The chute includes a flexible section which enables the discharge end of the chute to be maintained in a position to deposit crop into the trailer wagon when the vehicle is pivotally moved relative to the forage vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,393,644, which issued to W. Martenas on Jul. 19, 1983, discloses a forage harvester controlled by two-speed belt drives for operating a blower between a first and a second speed for improved operating efficiency U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,826, which issued to W. Wesselmann on Jan. 24, 1984, discloses a self propelled sugar cane harvester including a picking and comminuting device, an inclined conveyor, a discharge transversely inclined conveyor and a pressure fan located in the region of an outlet end of the inclined conveyor to direct an air stream through a comminuted sugar cane stream. U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,080, which issued to T. Hoepfner et al on Sep. 30, 1986, discloses a grass collector blower for attachment to a rotary lawn mower tractor vehicle. The grass collector blower has an impeller located within an upright housing attached to a side of the mower. A belt and pulley drive connects a horizontal impeller shaft to an upright blade shaft of the mower to rotate the impeller concurrently with the grass cutting blades of the mower. The rotating impeller draws grass clippings and other loose material from the mower and discharges the material into collection bags mounted on the rear of the tractor.
While the above mentioned devices are suited for their intended usage, none of these devices disclose a chaff spreader for attachment behind a sieve of a combine which includes a drive shaft operably connected for driving a pair of spaced fans supported within circular mounting rings and including a semicylindrical shroud partially surrounding the fans and having an open side wall portion directed forwardly toward the sieve of the combine for collecting and evenly distributing chaff residue. Inasmuch as the art is relatively crowded with respect to these various types of chaff spreaders, it can be appreciated that there is a continuing need for and interest in improvements to such chaff spreaders, and in this respect, the present invention addresses this need and interest.